What is Sidrat al-Muntaha?

What the Quran says

Surah an-Najm describes the Prophet ﷺ seeing the angel Jibril in his true form a second time, at a special place:

The next verse adds that the tree was covered by "what covered it" (Quran 53:16), wording that hints at a beauty too great to describe. A sidr is a lote tree, a hardy desert tree the Arabs knew well; al-Muntaha means "the furthest point".

What the Prophet ﷺ described

In the long hadith of the Night Journey, the Prophet ﷺ said he was raised to Sidrat al-Muntaha, whose fruits were like large clay jugs and whose leaves were like elephants' ears. He saw four rivers at its base: two hidden ones that flow in Paradise, and two visible ones, the Nile and the Euphrates (Sahih al-Bukhari 3207, Sahih Muslim 164).

Ibn Mas'ud reported that it is where everything rising from the earth stops and is taken from, and where everything coming down from above stops and is taken from (Sahih Muslim 173). That's why it's called the boundary.

Why it matters

• It was the high point of the Mi'raj, where the five daily prayers were given. See What is Isra and Mi'raj?
• It's where the Prophet ﷺ saw Jibril, the greatest angel, in his true form. See Who is Jibril in Islam?
• Jannat al-Ma'wa, a garden of Paradise, is right beside it. See What are the levels of Jannah?

Is it in the sixth or seventh heaven?

Narrations place it in the sixth heaven with its branches reaching the seventh, or in the seventh. Scholars such as an-Nawawi reconcile them: its roots are in the sixth and its height spreads into the seventh. As with everything in the unseen, we believe what's authentically reported and don't try to picture more than that.